When you are a leader, the most important thing you do is communicate. You communicate with your employees, coworkers, and other leaders. If you effectively communicate with others, you will likely be an effective leader.
Is It Important to Effectively Communicate?
A little while back, I was asked to attend a conference. I was excited and knew it would be a great experience. There were several presentations on a variety of topics related to leadership and how to effectively communicate your message. The majority of the presentations were exceptional and very beneficial to all in attendance.
Don’t Be This One!
There was one presentation, however, that stood out for the wrong reasons. The speaker was not prepared to effectively communicate his message. With the focus of the conference on leadership and how to be a great leader and communicator, this speaker got up and spoke about the politics of education.
His topic was a interesting, but didn’t fit with the purpose of the conference. In addition, he didn’t identify where he was going with his presentation.
Lack of Clarity
As I listened, many questions came to my mind. “What is the focus of his presentation? Where is he going with this? How is he going to relate this to leadership? How many points is he going to talk about?”
After he finished speaking, I asked the others at my table what they thought. They also all felt lost. None of us were clear on where he was going with his speech. Needless to say, the speaker didn’t effectively communicate his message.
This Happens Too Often
If you are anything like me, you have probably sat through a presentation before like the one I mentioned. The speaker probably had several points, but didn’t hook you from the beginning. The speaker didn’t effectively communicate the message.
I had a hard time figuring out the context of his presentation, his main points, the direction of his speech, etc. As he started his presentation, he failed to let the audience know the topic and its relevance. The audience quickly became completely lost. From there, they began thinking about other things.
How You Can Effectively Communicate
So how can you effectively communicate your message to avoid losing your audience? This can be done in many ways. One approach I recommend is Twain’s Rule, “Tell ’em what you’re going to tell ’em. Then tell ’em. Finally, tell ’em what you told ’em.” So how does this approach apply to communication?
“Tell ’em what you’re going to tell ’em.”
Start by letting your audience know what you are going to talk about. Explain the context of your message and the points you intend to make. This gives your audience a reference point to start from. Your audience then has an outline to follow which helps them stay on track.
Keep in mind that you don’t have to give away your main conclusions. You can also add in some hooks to keep them listening through it all. The key is to give them enough so they have context but not too much that they lose interest.
“Tell ’em.”
Once you’ve provided a rough outline, effectively communicate your message. Stay on point with your message and follow through on the points you’ve laid out.
Use stories as appropriate to convey your message, but don’t get sidetracked with irrelevant stories that don’t convey your message. If you go off topic, you will likely lose your audience and it will be difficult to bring them back. They will likely tune you out and that will be it.
“Tell ’em what you told ’em.”
In your conclusion, summarize your points to close the loop. Re-emplasize the invitations and/or action items while the topics are fresh in their minds. Finish with an invitation for everyone to follow through on their commitments.
Summary
This approach is beneficial in a formal presentation. It also enables you to effectively communicate your message in other settings. I’ve used this method in meetings to keep everyone on task.
Reader Question!
Have you used this approach before? How has it helped you to communicate your message? Please share your thoughts in the comments section below!
Great job Brandon. The rules work not just at work, but at home too. Very good read, your a natural!
Welcome Jenifer! Thank you for taking the time to read my post and share your thoughts!
Brandon,
Thank you for the topic excellent points you bring out.
I have had to speak at conferences and the hardest part that I encountered is trying to know your audience before hand.
I decided the best way is to use who the conference was geared towards and anticipate the levels these people held in their company and then tailor the message to different levels in a way that held everyone attention. Also by using Twain’s Rule I knew the message was getting across. I also lace a number of key questions in my lecture to ensure everyone understands the subject matter as I have a tendency to break things down many levels of depth.
Welcome Joseph!
I appreciate your insight on this subject. I really like the approach you take to speaking and addressing an audience. It is so important to think about your audience beforehand so that you really understand their needs and wants. In line with that, as you mentioned, it is important to address the president of the company different that you would address a front line employee. I say that in the sense of your approach to the topics you would discuss. You are going to talk high level and formal with the president and more nitty gritty and maybe even casual with a front line employee. Thanks for bringing up a great point!
Thanks Brandon, And I would like to relate Jenifer’s and Twain’s observations again and also add, te’ll ’em why you told ’em. in a crises situation it is quintessential that your views not be misconstrued or interpreted as self-affirming. ”Your a natural” as Jenifer said, a humanist I will unnecessarily add. All situations in these columns at Linked 2 Leadership are best treated as crises.
William,
I really like the “tell ’em why you told ’em.” People like to know why you are asking or telling them to do something. It helps to validate the request in their mind and feel like it is something important. Thanks for sharing!
Be explicit and interesting and let them feel you are telling your point in their interest and see they digest what you have said..and hint what more good you are likely tell….make them feel good by being interesting…….keep knowing the pulse of listeners and learn new techniques to make your communication more interesting than before………………..regards….
#janakilaxman,
Your point is very important. You need to know your audience so you can convey your speech, lecture, direction, etc. in a way that they can easily understand. If you don’t know your audience, it is really easy to not hit the mark. Thanks for sharing your insight!